My name is Myrna Young. I'm a Realtor. I work with Realty Executives, Regina. I would say it's really an exciting kind of career for somebody who's open to change, who wants to be a self-starter and who likes people. I think it's an excellent job.


[Hours Of Work:]

My phone usually starts ringing about 8:30 am, regardless of whether I've been out doing an offer 'till midnight the night before. So, there tend to be some very long days and sometimes they're very chaotic. Sometimes there are days where you do telephone tag with everybody and you just do paperwork (there's lots and lots of paperwork).

[Education & Training:]

First of all, you need a Broker to sponsor you. I mean you can take the course, but you need to have an idea of where you are going to go work. So you need to talk to some Brokers first. Then you take a correspondence course and write the exam to get your provincial license. Then you need to get your local license, so you attend class for a full seven days (rather gruelling kind of week).

[Most Satisfying Aspects:]

What we don't have to do here is we don't have to worry about politics. That's one of the blessings of this business. You are your own person. This is your own business. You decide how you want to spend money. You decide how you want to run your business. You decide how you want to advertise and promote yourself. You don't have to worry about the hierarchy of all the other people who are here in their office. They run their business as they feel is best for them.

You really set the goals for what you want to achieve yourself. You determine how much you want to work and how much money you want to make and then you go for it.

[Most Challenging Aspects:]

Maybe the most challenging is the general perceptions, the misconceptions I think, about our job and that it's really easy and that all you have to do is go out and take somebody to see one house and you've got it made and you're gonna make a whole bunch of money.

I think the other misconception is that if I sold a house, I got the entire commission. When someone looks at that lump sum they say, "Oh my goodness. You make so much money."

People really don't understand the research that you have to do and the knowledge that you have to have. I think they don't realize that you may, at any one given time, have five or six clients who all want your attention at the same time. There's just a whole lot of work that people don't see us do. So, I'm sure that if you figured out how much you made per hour it might change people's idea, considerably.

[Teamwork Skills:]

You need to learn to be able to work with others because you need to work with other agents. You need them to sell your listings. You need their listings to be able to sell your clients. So it's very important that you be able to work with them, to negotiate, to get the property sold.

[One Thing That You Would Change In This Occupation:]

The thing that I'm not crazy about is the rejection that you face in this business. You know, sometimes it doesn't matter how hard you try to get past the rejection - that's a tough one. You say, "Well, it's not personal" and they say, "It's not personal", but in here it feels personal. So, that's where it's important to have people around you in your office that will say, "That's ok. This happened to me too and it's alright." and move on.

[Advice For Someone Entering This Field Of Work:]

Well, I would like to take it a little less seriously sometimes myself. It's a very stressful business. It's hard on the body and the mind so sometimes you need to take time away from it. It’s one of these jobs that because you carry a pager, a cellular phone and because you're suppose to be available, that you can't get away from it when you're at home. So, there becomes a very fine line in how you preserve your own sanity and give yourself some family life.

It's a long and hard gruelling business, but if you like people and you get the satisfaction of seeing someone actually buy their dream home and move into it, and you know they’ll call you back and say, "Thanks, thanks, thanks!" - that's pretty nice.